


vespa

by emmamere



Series: a gathering of abnormalities (hxh) [11]
Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Assassination, Companions, Fae & Fairies, Fantasy, Male-Female Friendship, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 09:38:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15361614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmamere/pseuds/emmamere
Summary: What happens when assassin Kurapika comes across, or rather is almost mugged by, a faerie girl who he names Alluka.





	vespa

Kurapika was traversing up a mountainside when he heard a high whine, as if a whistle, from the growing thicket to his left. He had been in the world, and the business, long enough to know what it was indicative of; he crouched and uncloaked his blade, only to be stoppered by a knee to his stomach and a claw to his throat.

He huffed, breathless, and fell with the foe atop him. Kurapika thrusted up his blade into the direction of their form, eyes still blind from the dust of the ground but with enough ingrained tact to do as much. They leaped away, impossibly nimble, but stepped forward again and knocked away the cold metal with a swipe of their iron-hard forearm.

The claws returned to his throat and Kurapika, despite his considerable ambition, found himself in surrender as he blinked open abused eyes to the blackened pits of his opponent. 

"F-food," came her voice, hoarse and unpleasant.

He had heard the tales, back in the throes of childhood, but to his luck had never before seen a fae. Now that he had, and horrible she was, red dawned on his visage in spontaneous fear.

Yet, to his luck once more, this appeared to do the trick as she yelped and backed away, covering her face with her claws. What peeked out from behind them were two violet irises - ugly and unnatural, but not totally frightening as was her other face.

She wore the white and red robes of a culture foreign to him, but the wealth they displayed was obvious to any. Kurapika approached her slowly, eyes inflamed for insurance, and kneeled to her level once they met. 

"Who are you? A faerie?"

"Who are you? A devil?" she snapped, then saw again his eyes and shrank back. He noted with intrigue that her voice was smoother.

Kurapika insisted, probably out of curiosity. "Who are you?"

"A faerie who should not be one. And who is hungry. And who has no name." She seemed inclined to babble.

The crimson glow died and she lowered her claws. 

"Did you forget your name?" 

"I know I've forgotten things, but for names, I don' think they ever gave me one."

The man, after a delicate moment of hesitance, gave his hand. The faerie did what she had seen humans do and shook it.

"My name's Kurapika, an assassin. I can give you food and more, if there's anything you're good for."

She tilted her head, black torrents obscuring the gruesome violet, and awarded him with a toothy smile. 

"Well sir, I never much considered it a talent, but I can kill people, better than you can I'd say."

Kurapika swallowed. "Well, that would come in handy," he handed the fae a slice of bread from his satchel, which she gobbled up greedily. "Consider that our proof of contract...Alluka."

She blinked at him confusedly.

"I ought to call you something."

He would deny it, but Kurapika could never refuse such an opportune chance to soothe his loneliness.

-

Hours later, Kurapika pocketed a pouch of currency from an agent of the client and led his fae employee to the tavern where the target was last spotted. He let her finger a coin, cool and bitter in the mountain air, but took it back upon reaching their destination. 

Alluka pouted. 

"Now, this is where you prove your worth. Botch this mission and that bread and that name is all you'll get from me." 

To this, she smiled slyly. The surreal hue of her eyes faded and was replaced with the, even more obscene, colorless pits.

Kurapika flinched and averted his gaze just as Alluka set hers on the aged wood that held together the tavern. After not even a moment had passed, she motioned for Kurapika to follow and leaped to the back of the establishment, the crunch of the dead leaves beneath her boots the only sound to suggest that she had even moved.

They stood behind the tavern, where the level ground broke to a leafy slope shadowed by a copse of pine. Alluka stepped to the window and held her hand to the fractured pane. Kurapika followed, wary of the girl but intrigued to as how she would proceed.

Past the window, a man sat in a frangible chair. He was the sole inhabitant of the sordid room to be beheld by the window, as well as the sole focus of their mission; it was lucky.

Between his fingers sat a cigar; from his mouth, its smoke wafted. Before it could escape, he rose and shambled to the same window, blowing the smog into the pearl-white face of Alluka.

Alluka inhaled the smoke, though to her confederate it appeared that it had simply vanished - her mouth, like her eyes, had become an unfathomable chasm. The target inexplicably took no note of her nor him and sat once more on the rickety chair. 

When Alluka's magic took hold on the vapor, she expelled it, and it glided in a thin and purposeful line until it had formed an ominous halo around the man's covered neck. It did not tighten but caused his consecutive death; he slumped forward and out of the chair, cigar falling to the floor and snuffing out by the will of another inexplicable force, that Kurapika would then realize was actually the fae's.

"Decent?" pondered Alluka, normal face resumed. The marginal degree of the window that had been open, closed, though no one touched the glass.

"I would much like to question you, but I will not." Kurapika wrinkled his nose. "You are a better killer than I, Alluka."

He fished the coin out of his stringy pocket and threw it in the air. The fae beamed and snatched it before it could fall, enjoying the cold feel of the copper.

"You'll need another look for whatever time we spend in public. Blond, a bit taller, longer face - like you could be my sister."

Alluka's smile faded into a frown, eyebrows creasing. Kurapika sighed.

"I know what you are, and from what I've seen, you already have two faces. Just add another to the library."

The hitman huffed. "These mountains are dreadful. Let's head to the flatlands." 

-

Kurapika and Alluka purchased supplies at the closest town, Basindale, a settlement that was small but due to its location, rich with passing merchants. Kurapika had received a hefty sum from the recent client - a wealthy man - and intended to lavish his new associate, an additional insurance to guarantee that she wouldn't slit his throat in the night. 

In the marketplace, Alluka took every excusable opportunity to brush against someone. Kurapika found her zeal uncanny, but supposed that she was simply excited by the thick human presence. 

The fae stood a few inches below he, with flaxen hair to halfway down her back and pretty blue eyes far unlike any she'd worn before. Kurapika's attempt to seem inconspicuous had made her almost overly attractive, which caused many stares their way but no cries of 'faerie' or 'witch', so he supposed it was a success.

They bought food, clothes, and even candy and other sweets - some of which was, due to Alluka's unintentional charm, given for free. Kurapika bought as well a bag that was considerably larger than his satchel, for the faerie to carry; she was a servant, after all.

-

They booked a small room in an inn, and after dinner at an amiable restaurant, slept there for the night. 

Alluka's golden locks, a mirror of the other's, darkened and lengthened in a fascinating swirl of yellow to black. It was interesting indeed, but Kurapika made himself look away as the altered shawl grew too large for her shoulders and hung off an arm.

When she had finished, and donned the appropriate clothes, Kurapika spoke.

"Who did you steal those eyes from?"

Alluka froze, but then smiled. It was a common response. "Which ones?"

Kurapika settled on the lone bed, back still to the girl.

"The ones you wore today."

"Oh."

Alluka crossed the floor, soundless, and kneeled before the hitman. She cupped his face in her hands and morphed the customary, ghastly violet to the same blue he had seen. It shone, periwinkle and crystalline, but very human.

"Like angels' eyes, no?"

He laughed. "As if I would know."

"Then just agree."

"Yes."

She patted his cheek. "If you tell me why you have the eyes of a devil, then I'll tell you why I have the eyes of an angel."

Kurapika groaned and gently removed the imp's fingers from his face before initiating the scarlet eyes. He had lived with them for so long that activation could be brought on at will.

Alluka shied away, but the red vibrance faded almost immediately.

"Family trait. But the family's gone." Kurapika averred. "And those?"

The diabolical violet flickered in the room's weak lamplight. "A person I knew. I don't remember who he was."

Kurapika knew that he was becoming too invested - his trust was too high from the beginning, as always - but her story had a disturbing rhyme to it, especially with fairfolk commonly spoken of as face-snatchers and beguilers. And he couldn't dismiss his own whimsical curiosity for the life of him.

"What was he like?"

Alluka shifted. She rolled between her fingertips the coin that she hadn't ever dropped. "Strong enough to carry out orders. Weak enough so he couldn't defy them."

"Did you kill him?"

Suddenly, the room veered. The gross realization of her malice dripped down the walls and Alluka's face showed its evil - though this was different. Instead of empty, she was negative, darkening in a soul-sucking spiral that had Kurapika's body lurching with sharp pricks of red-hot pain, tears of garnet blood welling at the rim of her blank, stygian, bottomless visage, before -

"I don't know," and it was the truth.

Alluka fell. He did not catch her, but instead looked on in profound shock as she lie motionless on the inn room's floor.

Kurapika didn't know either. Though he stayed where he sat until night broke to morning and the sprite awoke.


End file.
